Site Mobile Navigation

Moses Sets World 400 Hurdles Mark

This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996.
To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.

Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems.
Please send reports of such problems to archive_feedback@nytimes.com.

LOS ANGELES, June 11—Edwin Moses set a world record in the 400meter hurdles at 47.45 seconds as the 89th annual national track and field championships of the Amateur Athletic Union came to a close today. A crowd of 10,692 watched the meet at Drake Stadium on the campus of the University of California at Los Angeles.

But the best drama, as usual, came toward sunset as the high jump competition went on when everything else was done. Dwight Stones won it at 7 feet 6 1‐4 inches, a meet record, when Franklin Jacobs, the 5‐foot‐8‐inch star from Fairleigh Dickinson, missed three tries at that height after clearing 7‐51/4 on his first try—more than 21 inches above his own height.

Then Stones had the bar put at 7‐73/4 for a world record attempt, half an inch above his own listed mark. But he couldn't make it.

Shortly before that, Milan Tiff had won the triple jump with a leap of 57 feet one‐quarter inch, a mark that would have been an American record if not for a following wind of four meters per second, well above the allowance. Tommy Haynes, the defending champion, was fifth, as Tiff regained a title he last held in 1970.

A flock of American records, especially in women's events, and several “world bests”, mostly among the men, marked the three‐day festival in which 34 individual titles were decided. In addition the first American finisher in each event qualified for the United States World Cup team and other selections for international competition were made on the basis of the performances here.

Among today's outstanding accomplishments were Steve Scott's victory over Wilson Waigwa in the 1,500‐meter run (in 3:37.3); successful title defenses by Terry Albritton in the shot‐put and Francie Larrieu Lutz in the women's 1,500; Don Quarrie's victory in the 100meter sprint in 10.12 seconds, a 1977 world best; and Evelyn Ashford's victory in the women's 100, giving her the only double of the meet, since she won the 200 yesterday.

Then there was Frank Shorter, regaining the 10,000‐meter championship by running away from everybody in 29:18.8 and Mike Tully, who took the pole vault at 18 feet 2 inches. There were also a couple of upsets: Robert Taylor beating Maxie Parks and Herman Frazier, among others, in the 400 in 45.44 seconds; and Mark Belger, of Villanova, holding off Seymour Newman, James Robinson and Mark Enyeart in the 800 in 1:45.81.

As a single race, however, the 1,500 was the sort of thing a metric mile is supposed to be. Scott is well‐known here and popular because he's a student at the University of California at Irvine, alongside Disneyland. in fact, he almost came late for yesterday's qualifying heatbecause he was taking six an exam. in six previous tries, he had not been able to beat Waigwa, a Kenyan who attends the University of Texas at El Paso.

This time, after Paul Cummings set the pace for the first half mile or more, Mike Boit, the Kenyan who is a graduate student at Stanford, burst out of the pack and opened a sizable gap before Mike Slack and Scott took after him. So did Waigwa.

Out of the final turn, Slack and Scott passed Boit, and along came Waigwa, in perfect position for the final kick with which he usually wins. But this time, although he reached Scott, he couldn't pass him and the young Californian crossed the line in 3:37.29, breaking Fred Dixon's meet record by two‐tenths of a second.

The American records set included one in the women's 400‐meter hurdles, won by Mary Ayres in 56.61 seconds; one by George Malley of Penn State, who finished second in the 3,000‐meter steeplechase, but still posted an 8:22.54 behind James Munyala, another Kenyan, whose 8:21.59 became a meet record. A couple of other would‐be records were nullified by excessive wind conditions.

Among the women, Kate Schmidt won her fifth straight national title in the javelin, and Joni Huntley her fourth straight in the high jump.

Albritton was the only repeater among the men today, although yesterday, Arnie Robinson won the long jump for the third straight time and Mac Wilkins made it three of the last five years in the discus.